BP Faces New Bout of Spill Liability

By

Tom Fowler

Feb. 18, 2013 8:32 p.m. ET

BP PLC already has agreed to pay more than $30 billion in fines, settlements and cleanup costs for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. Now it is placing a big bet that by going to trial next week, it can hold down the cost of one of its last major potential liabilities for the disaster.

The London-based oil company says both the law and the facts of the case make facing a federal judge in a trial a safer bet than...